Many water/wastewater treatment facilities include fluid filtration systems such as pressure vessel filtration systems and/or gravity-type filtration systems to treat water or wastewater. For example, wastewater treatment facilities operate to treat wastewater from industrial, municipal, recreational, and construction applications, sites, and/or entities, for example. Such wastewater may come from sewage, residential use (i.e., shower, dishwasher, washing machine, etc.), storm drains, and the like. Water treatment facilities treat and process water for delivery to consumers. Such water treatment facilities treat ground water, reservoir water, river water, lake water, and/or underground water for distribution as consumable water (e.g., potable) to residents and businesses within various cities and towns. Municipalities oftentimes own and operate such large-scale water treatment facilities.
The filtration systems of such water/waste water treatment facilities include a tank having one or more types of fluid media therein such as sand, anthracite, and/or gravel. Unclarified water enters the tank and flows downwardly through one or more filtering media which filter out unwanted substances. The filtered water then flows through an under drain system and out the tank.
During filtration, water may also flow down along the inner surface of the tank walls as well as along the outer surface of a pipe or any other protrusions within the tank. When it flows in such a manner, the water may not travel through the filter media and may effectively bypass the filtering media altogether. This is often referred to as “short circuiting.” Short-circuiting of water occurs when the liquid travels through the tank without being advanced through adequate amounts of the filter media.